Mia’s POV

I woke to silence.

But it wasn’t the kind I had known my entire life. This was different,thicker, alive, pressing in from all sides like unseen fog. It wasn’t an absence, it felt like a presence, something ancient.

I lay still beneath the threadbare blanket in the unfamiliar cabin Darius had led me to. The fire in the corner had long since died.

The air was cold and unmoving.

My breath fogged the space in front of me, but my chest didn’t rise with sound.

I was still mute,still broken, or so I thought.

The memory of the dream lingered in my chest like a phantom bruise.

I had heard myself speak.

Not with fear but confidence.

"You weren’t the one who broke the bond, Xander. I was.”

How could I say something I had never had the power to say? and why did it feel so true?

I pushed myself upright slowly,no pain,no soreness. The wounds I had gotten from the forest were gone, even the gash on my palm where thorns had torn my skin had healed overnight.

That had never happened before.

I ran a hand over my bare throat.

Still,I couldn't speak.

But there was power humming just beneath the skin, like a storm building inside me,it was quiet, breathing and waiting.

I rose and walked to the window,the world beyond was steeped in shadows and silver.

A fine mist curled above the forest floor, and the trees stood unmoving, as though watching.

I had never felt more watched in my life.

Later that morning, Darius appeared.

He didn’t knock because he didn’t need to.

I had sensed him approaching.

He pushed open the door and leaned against the frame, his ever calm eyes studying me.

“You felt it, didn’t you?” he said, with his voice low. “It’s waking up inside you.”

I didn’t answer, of course.

I didn’t need to.

He nodded like he understood everything.

“Come. There’s something I need to show you.”

We walked deeper into the forest than I thought the camp extended. We passed twisted trees and moss covered stones, into a hollow where light barely touched the ground. The air grew heavier and colder with each step.

Eventually, we came to a stone structure,an altar sunken into the ground. Vines curled up its sides, and strange runes shimmered faintly along the edges. Runes I didn’t recognize,yet instinctively understood.

Darius gestured towards it. “Touch it.”

I hesitated.

Then placed my hand on the cold stone.

Everything changed.

Flashes tore through me like lightning.

A woman like myself, standing on a battlefield.

Her voice was shaking mountains.

A silver wolf bleeding under a blood red sky.

The Moon Goddess herself, placing a kiss on my brow,and then, I saw chains.

I was bounded and silenced.

My breath caught as I was ripped from the vision.

I stumbled back, gasping.

Darius caught me by the elbow.

“What did you see?” he asked, more urgently this time.

I shook my head, unable to form the images into thoughts.

The silence clung to me like frost. I couldn’t trust what I had seen.

Yet one truth had crystallized:

I hadn’t been born mute.

I had been made mute.

I was sealed and not cursed,and the seal was beginning to break.

That night, I dreamt again.

Not of pain,but of choice.

A voice echoed through the void and it was definitely not mine, but the same voice from the altar.

“You chose silence to protect them. Now they seek to silence you again.”

Images flashed behind my eyes.

Xander was on the floor, writhing from the pain of the broken bond.

Elders whispering and conspiring.

Carmella was standing in shadow, with a dagger in her hand, and Darius’ eyes burning with something I hadn’t seen before.

It was burning with greed and selfishness

He never want to protect me,he wanted to own me.

I bolted upright.

Sweat clung to my skin despite the cold.

I stumbled to the mirror nailed to the cabin wall,and what I saw made my blood freeze.

A faint mark shimmered just below my collarbone, a crescent moon wrapped in a vine of thorns.

I reached up to touch it.

It pulsed beneath my skin,my breathing quickened.

“The Silent Mark.”

The very symbol from the prophecy the elders feared.

It had appeared on me.

I wasn’t just connected to the prophecy.

I was the prophecy.

I paced the cabin, unable to calm the storm inside. Everything in me was changing, twisting and sharpening into something I didn’t recognize, and still, I couldn’t speak.

But the silence wasn’t empty anymore.

It was full of voices and memories that weren't mine, power that weren't not mine, yet rooted in my blood.

I had to know the truth,not from Darius, and not from Xander.

But from the one person everyone feared more than death.

The Seer.

She lived at the edge of the Forbidden Ruins, where no wolf dared step.

But I would go there alone.

I began gathering what I needed. I was halfway through tying a satchel when I heard it.

A whisper. It was low and coarse inside my mind.

It wasn't Darius,nor my wolf.

But Something else.

“He lied.”

I froze.

“darius brought you here to awaken you… but not for your sake, it's for his sake.”

“You are the key to his throne.”

I turned toward the window, there was nothing there. It was just the mist.

But then, a shape flickered in the trees.

It wasn't a a wolf,nor a man.

It was something tall,it eyes were glowing, while watching me.

I blinked,then it vanished.

My pulse pounded as I backed into the cabin,then, I heard a soft knock,three times on the door.

I opened the door, my heart hammering.

It was Aria,my only friend.

Except… I had left her behind in Silver Fang territory.

How did she?

She looked at me, eyes wide.

“Mia,” she whispered. “We don’t have time,they know.

Xander… is coming,and he is not alone.”

“Darius plans to bind you before he arrives.”

My throat tightened.

“But that’s not the worst of it,” Aria continued.

She glanced around, leaned in close, and said: